


realizing it's now or never

by kimlip



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-31
Updated: 2017-03-31
Packaged: 2018-10-13 04:08:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10506057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kimlip/pseuds/kimlip
Summary: betty cooper and veronica lodge in their final year of high school.





	

**Author's Note:**

> a fluff betty and veronica semi-au (oneshot?)

“Wake up.”

Silence.

“...Ronnie.” An elbow to the ribs.

Silence.

“Veronica, you need to wake u—”

“Would you like to explain to me if there’s a reason as to why you’re speaking during my exam?” The condescending glare that she was all too familiar with forced her to shift her gaze away from the raven haired girl beside her, who was probably nowhere finishing the essay she had decided to be her impromptu pillow. Giving an apologetic smile as a reply, she observed from the corner of her eye as their literature teacher shook Veronica’s shoulders repeatedly, she immediately upright with a confused “Huh?” slipping past her lips.

“This is at least the third time you’ve fallen asleep mid-class, Miss Lodge. If my class seems too boring for you and are not something you choose to pay attention to, please suggest something that would fulfill your interests.” The older male spoke softly, though there was a stern edge to his voice that caused her to nod quickly and look down at the essay she was halfway through. As soon as he was en route to the front of the class, she glared at Betty; fishing through her stationery, she found a pink eraser that soon came into contact with the side of the her head and caught Betty’s attention.

“Why didn’t you tell me I fell asleep?!” She whispered.

“I tried to!” She snapped back defensively, the two silenced yet again by their teacher clearing his throat as an obvious warning to return to their respective work.

—

“Why do you keep falling asleep in class so much lately? You got a mystery boyfriend you’re not telling me about in your dreams?”

The pair was now far away from their teacher, sprawled out across the unoccupied bleachers that faced the main fields where the obvious football players were practicing endlessly. It had become their ritual to spend free periods and lunchtimes-along with the occasional ditch, of course to hide out at the top of the widespread metal seats, considering the weather was usually nice and it gave a certain someone a far too appreciative view of the football players as they trained their asses off.

“Yeah, I do!” Veronica replied in an enthusiastic tone dripping with sarcasm, standing on top the opposing bench to where Betty was laying flat and looking up at her. “He was five foot eleven, with the most dreamiest brown eyes with such a cute voice. You should’ve seen his super model like legs, they’re to die for.”

Though she truthfully tried to pay attention to Veronica’s false description of her imaginary dream boy, Betty failed to register the majority of the words she was saying. She was caught between nodding along and focusing on her features, smiling to herself as she remembered their ironic first meeting. The fact that the first words to come out of her mouth were, “Do you have five bucks? I promise I’ll pay you back!” along with an expression even the most heartless would feel sorry for had brought them close was something she thought about every now and then.

“Okay, but I’m sure the guy was nowhere as dreamy as I am,” she scoffed, crossing her arms as she sat up.

“Actually—” Veronica’s attention was elsewhere as she trailed off, motioning to the field in front of them where a certain boy in question caught her eye. “Archie is pretty close to the guy I have in mind, y’know.”

Betty simultaneously gritted her teeth and rolled her eyes at the mentions of her best friend, who seemed to have a habit of catching the attention of anyone (or, anything for that matter) that breathes. She looked on as the girl beside her oogled over the tall, red-haired and lean football player that kept tripping over his own feet once he noticed that the both of them were looking at him as he made his way up to the bleachers.

“Enjoying the view, I see.” Archie teased, earning a slap across the back of his hand from Betty as a reply. “Ow! What was that for? Not like I was lying, right Veronica?”

“Sure,” she replied, a grin stretching across her face as she tapped at the red haired boy’s leg with her foot. “Clearly you’ve been working hard, it shows.”

There it was again.

For whatever reason Betty couldn’t seem to place her finger on, she could feel herself grow agitated with their unnecessary flirting. The fact that she was standing there in front of Veronica laughing and poking at someone else when it could be her that she was talking to, actually sent questions racing through her mind that she never had the answer to. Why was she so frustrated about something so stupid? Why did she want Veronica’s attention so badly? Why couldn’t she and Archie shut up by now?

Coming to her own conclusion that the pair weren’t planning to stop anytime soon, she grumbled under her breath and threw her bag of her shoulder, long legs carrying her down to the grassy field where she leaned over the railing that separated the players from the spectators. Her eyes landed on the dozen or so of cheerleaders still practicing hard, their uniforms showing signs of wear and tear from months of tumbling through the grass and slipping mid-air. Finally, she dropped her gaze on Cheryl Blossom: the girl everyone wanted to have but no one seemed to succeed.

She was literally perfect.

“Betty!” as if on cue, Cheryl’s voice travelled to call her over, forcing her to jog across the field to where the girls were seated cross-legged, Cheryl was passing around a bottle of water as she raised her eyebrows in question. “I feel like I never see you around anymore since you dropped out, how’ve you been?”

“Good, I guess. Can’t complain,” her reply was short but she still lifted the corners of her mouth so that the cheerleader wouldn’t assume she was being sarcastic. “What about you guys, practicing hard?”

“Definitely!” Her personality shone through her somewhat excited tone of voice, bouncing on her toes as she continued to speak. “We made it to finals and you know we’re gonna have to get in shape for something like that. After all—”

And there it was. The one flaw Betty seemed to notice with Cheryl; she spoke incessantly. Not to the point to annoy someone, but the fact that she had a short attention span and she fought to retain it just never seemed to work out. Her focus turned to the cheerleaders that surrounded her, nodding to keep Cheryl assured as she thought back to when Veronica had tried out to become a cheerleader herself along with Betty. Veronica was more than capable of their routines and long practices, but unfortunately her background with Cheryl was a problem according to the cheer coach. She could remember it as it it were yesterday; seeing Veronica’s facial features change from bright to gloomy in a matter of seconds. She remembered how the the girl cried onto her shoulder, and how she apologized for getting Betty’s cheerleading outfit wet from her tears and how she wouldn’t shut up about it until Betty brought her back an armful of snacks from the vending machine while reassuring her that she’ll be fine.

“Any reason why you’re just smiling to yourself? Hello?” Cheryl waved her hand frantically in front of Betty’s face before resorting to tapping her cheek lightly, then a bit harder until it was practically a slap. She burst out laughing at her friend’s horrified expression, rubbing at her face as an apology. “Clearly you have a bad habit of zoning out. Somebody’s gotta keep an eye on you.”

“Yoo—Hello? Veronica.” Archie had found himself in the same situation, tugging on the ends of Veronica’s sleeve as he genuinely became concerned at the fact that the look on her face changed completely and she hadn’t said a word. “HELLO?!”

“Huh? Yeah!” snapping out of her dazed state, she smiled at him apologetically with a curt shake of the head so that Archie wouldn’t question any further. Even if he did, how could Veronica explain that she was staring at Betty while she was busy making advances on Cheryl? She wouldn’t be able to fully explain the fact that she, herself had no idea why she grew so paranoid at the thought of Betty with someone else, or how her stomach ached whenever she wasn’t speaking to her and investing her time in another girl, specifically. It would seem needy and she wasn’t having that. “I’m good! You should go change, right?”  
“Uh, yes.” Archie tilted his head, still dumbfounded by Veronica’s peculiar behavior. Nonetheless, he shrugged it off and hurried down to the rest of his teammates, leaving Veronica to hold her head as she continued to oversee Betty and Cheryl with narrowed eyes.

“Oh, Cheryl, you’re so gorgeous,” she began in an annoying tone of voice as if she were mocking her friend. “Captain of the cheerleaders, everyone loves you so much and so do I! How funny is that! Ha!”

“You know, you really should stop talking to yourself.”

Shooting up from her seat, Veronica glared across at Betty who, in record time, had made her way up to where they originally were with an amused look plastered across her face. Veronica turned away, her voice deadpan as she picked up her own bag and walked past her despite them having the same class.

“Whatever.”

“You okay?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” Veronica lashed out in response, her pace quickening as she tried to ignore her apparent jealousy that even she couldn’t bring herself to understand.

—

“For the last time, I’m okay!” Veronica groaned for what must have been the seventh time since the pair had left the field. They were in Chemistry class, the teacher stepping out and leaving a movie on to entertain his class for the time being. Everyone was either engrossed in the movie or their phone screens, texting friends from other classes and whatnot. And then there were the two in the back left corner, with Betty staring at Veronica as though she would burst into flames if she kept her eyes fixated on her friend long enough.

“Veronica, I’ve known you for four years and we’ve been best friends for three of those. Either you start explaining what’s on your mind or… I’ll ignore you.”

“Ignore me then!”

Her persistence took Betty aback; usually by the first five minutes of being moody with her, she’d cave and start yelling or just go back to how she usually behaves. She blinked in reply, suddenly no mood of her own to try to pry anymore and faced the other direction.

“That’s your business if you want to be so rude about it then.”

“Excuse me?” Veronica leaned forward immediately, her voice raising as she squinted at the girl next to her. “I don’t have to tell you if I don’t want to.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?!”

“What do you want me to say?!”

“Nothing, forget it.”

“Do you have any idea how confusing you’re being right now?” Betty shook her head, lifting her bag from the ground and scoffing as she made her way to the door. The rest of the class seemed far more interested in the sudden tension between the two than anything else, their attention fully on the brewing fight as they whispered amongst themselves.

“Where are you even going?” the black-haired girl followed behind her friend, her footsteps heavy as she reached for Betty’s arm. She shook her off in the same motion, making Veronica’s eyes widen as she continued to follow her into the hallway.

“You’ve been acting weird since I left you and Archie alone to talk to Cheryl. And for what?” Betty questioned suddenly, looking down on her with the expectancy of a reply.

“Uh—”

“You better come up with a good excuse because there’s no reason to be acting like this.”

“I just… uh—”

“You guys need to come back inside right now.” A third person jumped into the awkward conversations, the two turning to realized it was Kevin. His face showed obvious concern as he peeked out of the doorframe, motioning for them to return. “Teacher just called, he’s on his way back and he says he’s sending anyone out of class straight to detention.”

“I don’t care, I’m waiting for an answer.”

“Betty, stop being a brat and just come on let’s go.” Veronica reached for her hand again and she pulled away, shaking her head at her and looking back at Kevin. “Kevin, just help me get her to stop being annoying.”

“Like you weren’t being annoying yourself literally five minutes ago.” 

“I don’t know what you two are fighting about but you really should—” Halfway through Kevin’s interjections their teacher rounded the corner, catching the three of them and sighing at the sight. “Sir, we just—”

“I don’t want to hear it, you heard me the first time. You had at least five minutes to find your seats, no?”

“I— We—”

“Detention. Three of you. This afternoon.”

—

“OKAY LOOK.”

Kevin slammed his hand down on the desk he was seated behind, tired of the painful silence that sat amongst the three for the past half an hour since school had ended. Their supervisor had decided to leave early, asking that they promise to stay in the room until the hour was up and they could go home. They agreed reluctantly, though the only boy of the three was fed up of his empty stomach and the fact that the two closest people he knew refused to talk about their sudden brawl out in the hall earlier.

“I have no idea what is going on, you guys usually fight about the dumbest things anyway. But the fact that you’re not talking when it’s literally just US in the room is something different. I don’t know what you plan to do, but I’m getting out of here. There’s a burger and fries somewhere out there with my name on it and I am not waiting another half hour for it.” pushing his chair away hastily from the table, he looked at the two once more and rolled his eyes. “Text me when you’ve sorted this mess out.”

With that, he took notice of any teachers who might have been walking along the hallway and ducked out, leaving the two to wallow in their own anger as they constantly threw side glances at each other.

“Were you jealous?”

“Huh?” Veronica turned her attention to her nails, picking at her fingers as though they were the most interesting things in the world at that point. She’d already been wracking her brain trying to figure out a good excuse for her attitude earlier and still had failed to come up with anything liable.

“You heard me. When I was talking to Cheryl, were you jealous?”

“No.”

“Veronica,” Betty started, scooting closer as she lifted Veronica’s chin so that she’d look at her. She couldn’t look away from her, though she controlled her face to appear upset regardless. “Nobody’s going to steal your best friend away from you. This is our last semester at school anyway, Ronnie. We’re still going to see each other after we start getting busier—”

“You don’t get it, do you?”

Yet another silence fell over them and it suddenly dawned on Veronica why she was so bothered. Why she couldn’t handle seeing Betty enjoy the time she spent with Cheryl, or why the term “best friend” that she so often felt comforted by now left her disappointed. It wasn’t even as though the feeling had hit her only two hours ago, it had been there for quite a while and only now could she bring herself to admit it. The fact that she reiterated their parting soon from high school made her cringe at the thought and she cleared her throat, meeting Betty’s confused eyes with nervous words as she reminded herself: now or never. 

“There’s something I should tell you.”


End file.
